1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to blenders. More particularly, the present invention relates to hand held blenders.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hand held blenders including immersion blenders, are well known. Typically, these blenders have a tall, tubular hand grip portion that contains a drive motor, to which a shaft that may be immersed into a liquid or mixture is connected. The shaft typically has an input end operatively connected to the drive motor and an output end operatively connect to a processing tool, such as, for example, a whisk attachment (good for whipping cream), and other accoutrements, such as strainers or beakers, to puree or chop or otherwise mix the contents of individual drinks or the like.
These hand held blenders are very practical for their specific purpose. Conventionally, such blenders are used in combination with any of a variety of separate containers to process (e.g., mix, chop, cut, etc.) any of a variety of different food stuffs of various consistencies from solid to viscous to liquid.
These hand held, immersion blenders, sometimes referred to as stick blenders, can have transmission shafts of approximately 6 to 8 inches in length. Consequently, in operation, any inefficiency at the input end of the transmission shaft is amplified at the output end thereof. Also, the elongated nature of these blenders makes efficient cleaning and storage a challenge.
Thus, it is an advantage for effective operation, storage and/or cleaning purposes to provide a hand held blender that ensures a reliable and stable connection between the transmission shaft and the drive motor, and that provides that the connection is quickly and easily releasable via a user interaction. It is also desirable to provide such a hand held blender with two or more hand grip portions to facilitate efficient operation of the blender during use.